Zoeken in deze blog

Miscellaneous Monday - The Adventures of Prince Achmed & Ivy in Bloom

Mondays are a grab bag of things that don't fit any other theme, or things I just have to share.
Like the movie I want to recommend today:The Adventures of Prince Achmed.

picture from IMDb.com

It's a very old movie (1926), recently remastered and it is absolutely wonderful.
The film, originally a German production, tells the tale of Prince Achmed (from the Arabian Nights fairy tales), how he flies away on a horse, he battles demons, loses his heart to a princess and, with the aid of Aladdin and a witch, saves his sister from a wicked sorcerer.

Aside from the fact that is's a fairy tale (and don't we all love those?), it is just mesemerizing. The whole movie is animated with these silhouette shapes, like the shadow puppet theatres you can find in several Asian countries (as you can see in the picture above).
The animation is a bit clunky (again, it was made in 1926!) , but I think it just adds to the charm of the whole thing. And the light effects were really awesome.

This is definately worth seeking out and giving a go!

The other thing I want to talk about is this cute little book:(cover from Goodreads).Ivy In Bloom by Vanita Oelschlager

(Disclaimer: I did receive a copy of this book through Netgalley, but that did not influence my opinion on the book).

I loved the drawings in this one, the inky blackness of the lines, combined with the watercolour colours was really pretty and impressive. They also matched the poetry lines brilliantly, and made the whole thing into a story, instead of just selected sentences from poems.

I liked the bibliography in the back, and how it was build up, although I'm inclined to say it would've been nice if the authors were identified on the page with the line and the drawing.The only thing I didn't like about this whole book was the couple of instances where the quotes were reassembled (as in leaving part of the original line out e.g. in the book 'Give me sunbeams dazzling', original line by W. Whitman: 'Give me the splendid silent sun with all his bams full-dazzling.')

Disclaimer

Occasionally I receive books for review from publishers or authors. This does not influence the content of my review, and if a book was obtained in this way, it will always be noted in my post regarding the book.

Foto's and other illustrative material will always be accredited to the source where I retrieved them, and/or to the copyright holder.

Populaire posts

Now, Ursula K Le Guin is a brilliant SciFi writer, it's just too bad she doesn't have any real faith in humanity. On the other hand, if you lok at the world today, you can't really blame her.
Of course, you also have to bear in mind that this was first published in the early 1970s.

Back then, the Cold War still had a big influence (that one only ended in 1989 (Fall of the Berlin Wall. Others may argue it lasted until 1991 when the former USSR was disolved ),
Also in the '70s, the Vietnam War was still going on and Skyjack Sunday had just happened.

Actually, summing up those events, it's not that dissimilar to today's global political status... Damn. Maybe that's why this particular book struck a chord with me...

You can read my initial thoughts after reading the book here on GoodReads, and I still stand by that opinion, really.

It's another Frilly Friday! And what is more frilly than ballet? Nothing, right?
So todays book and movies are all themed around the classical dance.

First, we'll take a quick look at Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes.

Now, I had no idea this book existed (I know, shame on me), untill I picked up the DVD of this movie: (picture from IMDb.com)
And since it was a very entertaining movie (okay, let's face it, it has Marc Warren in it. And he's just brilliant. After all, he manages to portray Mr Simpson (Mrs. Simpson is absent in the movie), and not look lik a child molestor...), I decided to read the original book. And it did not disappoint.
As I said, it was a very entertaining movie, and rather inspiring for girls, without being too sappy. Some changes have been made in comparisson to the book, but that was all done so the story could be told in a shorter time frame.
But back to the book, although honestly, I don't have a lot to say about it. Except that it just m…